


The Best Coffee In New York

by Hmiq_with_a_pen



Series: Tumblr oneshots [1]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Flirting, He's not, M/M, but don't worry, herc works at a coffee shop, i'm sure he still sew during his free time, madison is still waiting for his coffee, thomas thinks he is smooth, tip waiters people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 02:43:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15742533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hmiq_with_a_pen/pseuds/Hmiq_with_a_pen
Summary: Thomas Jefferson had a pretty stressful work life. Between the global geopolitical situation, an increasing amount of work each day and some very aggravating colleagues (but he wouldn’t name names), it was only fair he got to relax once in a while. And what better way to relax than to go buy some overpriced coffee at some unknown coffee shop?But, if he was honest with himself, he had to admit it wasn't for the coffee that he came back...





	The Best Coffee In New York

**Author's Note:**

> This was first posted on tumblr, and it was for the prompt : I'm a server and you're a frequent costumer and you flirt me but you never tip me, what the hell man?!  
> This is my very first fic, so I would love to hear your thoughts on this !

Thomas Jefferson had a pretty stressful work life. Between the global geopolitical situation, an increasing amount of work each day and some very aggravating colleagues (but he wouldn’t name names), it was only fair he got to relax once in a while. And what better way to relax than to go buy some overpriced coffee at some unknown coffee shop? Well, yeah, one might argue there was way better stuff to do for that, but Jefferson disagreed. He had a good reason for this, mind you. Some months ago, during some fancy party, James and him had a little argument where some unfortunates words had been thrown.

In particular, James had insinuated that Thomas knew nothing about coffee, good wine and drinks in general. Thomas had taken that straight to heart. Since then, he was on a quest to find all the coffee shops and wine shops in New York, to then invite James in the best of them and prove to his good friend how sure his taste was. 

However, today, if he was going to a very specific coffee shop, this wasn’t exactly to judge the quality of their coffee. Actually, he had already tasted their cappuccino, their black coffee, their macchiato, their café latte… He had already kind of tried everything on the menu, really. If he came back there, it wasn’t really for the coffee anymore… 

He sat at his usual place, by the counter, nonchalantly waiting for someone to come get his order. And by someone, he meant the only barista working here at the time. He had been here enough times to memorize who worked which shift, (no, that wasn’t creepy… Was it?), and right now, the person holding the counter was a muscular man around his age, evidently very absorbed by the cup he was cleaning. His skin, darker than Thomas’s, seemed smooth, and his muscles were visible even under the loose fitting shirt. His eyebrows were faintly frowned, and his lips were… It wasn’t like Thomas was paying attention to his lips, nah, he wasn’t like that. But if he had to guess, he would say the man’s lips were very slightly… pouting.

He paid no attention when Thomas, the only client at the counter, loudly cleared his throat. Now if Thomas hadn’t been, well, Thomas, he would have thought the man was ignoring him on purpose. But that couldn’t be it. After all, Thomas was certainly one of the most loyal clients of the shop by now, and he made a point of always being polite, well dressed, and basically the most delightful customer any business could ask for. There was no reason for him to be ignored. He decided to wait patiently until the barista was ready to serve him. For this guy, he had all the time in the world.

The situation became a little more awkward when another client entered the shop and was immediately greeted and served by the barista. Now, there was no denying Thomas was being disregarded. Why? What did he do? Was it because the man had picked up on how Thomas only came when he was doing the service? Did he think it was creepy? 

Okay. Thomas had been friendly every time he had been served, striking conversations, and every time, the other man had seemed happy to have a chat, even looking a bit disappointed when Thomas left.   
So what was the issue? There was nothing wrong with friendliness, right? Though, Thomas had to be honest with himself, their last chats had kind of left the “friendly” territory, to wander a bit more into some kind of… flirt. Who could blame him? The guy was hot as hell! And he hadn’t seemed bothered by it at all. On the contrary, he had even been the first one to give his name (Hercules. It certainly was something Thomas could see himself screaming in bed) and to suggest Thomas some types of drinks that sounded like very unsubtle innuendo.   
But maybe he did all of that in a straight way? Maybe he had just now picked up on the fact that Thomas would really appreciate seeing his hands wrapped around something that wasn’t a coffee mug, and got scared. But come on. A guy who loved to knit in his free time (because yes, Hercules had told Thomas he could knit. Wasn’t that absolutely adorable?), being straight? That couldn’t be.

Still, Thomas was totally getting ignored. And he was a very reasonable guy, he could get past a lot of things, but this wasn’t one of them. Like, what? Why the hell would you ignore him? He had been voted “Most likely to succeed” in high school! When he finally couldn’t bear it anymore, he got up and pretended to walk out. But no reaction. Well, he couldn’t really leave, right? His pride had been wounded, and he deserved an explanation! So, after an extremely convincing play of “Oh no! I must have forgotten my wallet inside!” he came back in. Hercules barely looked at him, and then went back to his work with a small, knowing smile. Prick. 

“Hum. I’ve been here for twenty minutes!” he said in an attempt to seem rightfully offended.  
“That’s true.”  
“Yeah”, Thomas continued, “And I still haven’t been served even though I’m like, the only person here.”

The expression of his rightful anger was met with a little laugh. “You are not my number one priority, Mister Jefferson”.  
Now that was a low blow. People calling him Mister had always been his weakness, and not being someone’s number one priority had always been his pet-peeve. “And may I be informed of what the number one priority of a barista in some lost coffee shop might be?”

The other man took his sweet sweet time to answer. “It’s customers… Those who leave tips.”

Ha.

See, Thomas was loaded. It was written all over his clothes, his hair, probably even his face. But he had a certain principle: he never left tips. What was the point? They would be taxed anyway. Now, looking at the man in front of him, carefully avoiding looking at him, he wondered if it wasn’t a really dumb principle, after all.

“Ah… I don’t… I just never… That’s something I don’t do.” This time, Hercules gave up the cleaning of the bar to look at Thomas, straight into the eyes. This was, first of all, kind of aggressive, and second of all, way too hot to be legal. Thomas hadn’t thought he was the kind of guy to swoon just because someone looked at him, but he would be damned if this didn’t made him feel like his knees were suddenly weak. Who said brown eyes were boring? It felt like he was pinned to the ground just by the stare.

But Thomas was a very collected guy.  
He tried to formulate a more coherent answer, but he was cut off. “I think it’s kind of a dick move, to flirt with someone every time you see them, even though they are working, and then to never leave even a cent. I mean, you suggested inviting me on a million dollar cruise, and you can’t even get 5 bucks out of your pocket? It’s kinda rude, man.”  
That was it. Thomas had ruined his chances with the guy he wanted, because he had been to self-absorbed to give a tip. This was one of his saddest defeats so far. Surely he couldn’t recover from-“But,” Hercules continued like he hadn’t noticed Thomas face dropping, “It’d be cool if you wanted to make things right between us. I mean, I hope I didn’t flirt with you for a month without getting anything in return.” Thomas felt his mouth get dry.  
“So… What are you suggesting?” Slowly leaving his counter, Hercules got close, until he was only centimeters away. At this distance, Thomas could clearly see the glint of amusement in his eyes. “Well, maybe… you could invite me to some of these fancy places you’ve talked so much about during our talks. You would be paying of course.” Of course. And, he swear, if this went well, he would give the servers the biggest tips they’d ever seen.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of fun writing this ! At first I was kind of afraid that Hercules was out of character, but I'm happy with the result. Please leave comments ! (and tell me if you see any mistakes)


End file.
